At address, depending on the club you’re using, creates a specific shaft angle. From a down the line view, if you drew a line from the bottom of your club where the head is, up the shaft and through your body, that is your shaft plane line.

Golf Swing Takeaway Tip

When you take the club away, it should be with your shoulders, not an independent hand or wrist movement (like I use to do). If you take the club away independent of your shoulders and upper body, you will quickly get the shaft off plane, and the club disconnected from your body.

A common fault is to have the club get further away from you in the early part of the takeaway. If you do this, you will then have to make a drastic drop to the inside coming down, which is an “added move” you shouldn’t have to do, if you were on plane going back.

So your takeaway tip is to take the club back 12-24 inches with no wrist cock, and the upper body doing all the movement. No hands, wrists or even elbow bending at this point.

A good checkpoint is to stop at about 2 feet back in takeaway, and look down at your clubhead. It should still be pointed at an extended target line directly behind the ball.

Backswing Continued

Another checkpoint is when the clubshaft is parallel to the ground. Your club shaft should be parallel with your target line. The toe of the club should be nearly pointing to the sky.

At this point, you’ve basically continued rotating your upper body, arms, hands and club back in “one-piece”. With no independent hand, wrist or elbow action, and your upper arms staying close to your body, with no separation.

Halfway Back In Your Backswing

This may be the most important checkpoint in your backswing to make sure you are on plane. I do this drill in a mirror almost daily.

When your left arm is parallel to the ground, you should have completed your wrist cock, with a slight bend of the right elbow, as you’ve continued rotating back. If you’ve done this correctly, the butt of your club will point at an extension of your target line, about 3 to 4 feet behind your golf ball.

Make this halfway back swing, stop and check if you are on plane. Do it 10 times without stopping, with the last 2 having your eyes closed to be able to “feel” what it’s like to be on plane at this point in your backswing.

Top Of Your Backswing

If you got to the position mentioned above, then all you need to do is finish your shoulder rotation and you’re in a perfect top of the backswing position that is on plane, and ready to come down into impact with a lot of force and compression.

In a future article, we’ll talk about how to stay on plane in your downswing.

Golf Swing Plane Trainer

Here’s A Fast Way To Get Your Backswing On Plane

As you may have read in a previous article, I’m a big believer in the use of golf swing trainers, and the one I have used with much success is the Golf Swing Plane Trainer.

Click on the image to your left if you want to get an on plane golf swing fast!

A common swing fault (I’ve been guilty) is to move your arms independent of your upper body early in the swing and post impact. This creates a very loose, powerless golf swing, that cannot get back to impact in a consistent position

By learning to keep you left arm in close to your upper chest, it makes it much easier to hit the ball, because all you have to do is rotate your upper body through the ball, and the left arm goes along for the ride. Unfortunately, most golfers struggle to get this down, and resort back to their disconnected swings that create mishits and poor distance.

You may have seen golf drills like the one where you take a clubhead cover from one of your woods and tuck in underneath your left armpit, and you make a swing trying to keep it in there, but I found this drill not too effective, as it was uncomfortable to have that under my armpit.

Use A Golf Swing Aid

I am a big believer in the use of golf swing aids, especially ones that are specific to your swing fault. When you can use one of these aids, and make full swings (and even hit balls), you get INSTANT feedback as to if you are doing it correctly or not. This dramatically speeds up your learning to nearly instant, but as we all no, you need repetitions doing it right to ingrain it into your brain and golf muscles.

Recommended Golf Training Aid

I hope you’ve enjoyed this concise article, and now see how critical it is to keep your left arm connected to your chest. If you want to speed up your results, take a look at our connected golf swing aid.

Here’s 7 Simple Steps To A Better Golf Swing

• Grip
• Posture
• Ball Position
• Takeaway
• Top Of Backswing
• Downswing
• Impact

Grip

Your golf grip is your ONLY connection to your club. If you do not hold the club properly, you will not come into impact with a square clubface.

The focus of your winter (off season) golf program should be technique, golf swing strength and flexibility. That combination will dramatically improve your driving distance and even consistency. From now on I want you to think of the golf season as your time to prepare your body for the “next season”, not just a time to put the golf clubs away and forget about golf.

Like all other athletes in EVERY other sport, they all train in the off-season, so why wouldn’t a golfer do the same? It’s common sense to get better, you’ve got to put some “off the course” time in to see the results on the course. Doesn’t that makes sense?

Here’s where a shameless plug comes in

I know you’re time is limited with family obligations, and the holidays, but what if I told you, you could do a simple, easy and fun golf training program “in your home” with just a couple of pieces of very inexpensive exercise equipment in just a couple of minutes a day? Would you be interested? I think you would!

Click on the BIG image below to find out about my INSTANTLY downloadable golf training ebook that has simple golf exercises, easy golf stretches and programs you can do in the comfort of your own home.

I was really trying too hard with my arms, creating not only tension which slows clubhead speed, but making my upper body more dominant during the initial part of the downswing. This caused a whole host of issues with my swing, that resulted in the above mentioned toe shots, a lack of hip rotation and clearing through impact, a raising up out of my spine angle at impact, and a slight flip of the hands causing an early release through the ball.

With all that being said, I am now initiating my downswing with an emphasis on lower body weight shift/rotation and more importantly PASSIVE arms. I feel like my arms are now along for the ride, as opposed to them dominating my golf swing. This will take me some time to ingrain, but with my commitment to practice, I know I will get this, and have already seen some positive results on the practice range.

So when you are making your golf swing transition, and you want the proper sequence coming down, think passive arms, and a lower body shift/rotation. I think it will help you.

This no backswing approach is one that’s been used as a golf drill by golf instruction professionals for years, so it’s kind of comical this is the new craze in golf swing improvement.

It has a lot of merits to consider. The short backswing makes your transition and sequence of motion in the downswing much easier. It enhances solid ball contact which maximizes distance; so what you think you might lose from backswing coil, you gain in ball/clubface contact.

Unfortunately the negative is the golf swing requires a take-away. This no backswing golf swing removes that, so you might have a difficult time carrying over from the drill to can actual swing from address.

This may or may not be an issue, but I think doing the No Backswing Golf Swing is worth a shot. Who knows…you may dramatically improve your golf swing consistency and mechanics.

When I think of lag from the wrists, I think of Sergio Garcia. He has the most impressive, nearly impossible wrist lag (delayed wrist cock) on tour. It’s absolutely amazing to see him with his hands near impact, and his wrists still fully cocked.

One of the LONGEST hitters on the PGA Tour is JB Holmes. He is another perfect example of gaining maximum power through your wrists.

Hinging and unhinging (rehingeing) the wrists is ONE motion. This is where golfers get it wrong!

I took a quick picture(s) to show you the very SIMPLE motion of the proper wrist hinge.

In the picture near the top, I’m hinging. The image below, I’m unhinging. That’s it!

Another common term for wrist hinge is wrist cock. Look how my wrist is bending only ONE way! This is SO important. It doesn’t break side-to-side, only up and down. Combine the turning of the shoulders, dropping of the arms, and this hinge, unhing and rehinge of the wrists at the right time, and you’ve got a TON of POWER!

Recommend Golf Swing Aid

Want to finally learn the proper wrist hinge for better ball striking? Check out the swing aid for improved golf swing power and consistency.

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Below is a list of golf improvement approaches that you can use independently or in combination to learn how to play better golf:

Golf Instruction

The golf swing requires certain movements that are not very natural, so golf swing instruction should be at the top of your list, especially if you’re a beginning golfer. Learning the fundamentals of golf is something every golfer needs and struggles with even as you improve.

Golf instruction can be through private one-on-one golf lessons. Group lessons (which are less expensive). Online instruction is becoming more and more popular. Golf instruction books. And golf instruction DVDs is another great alternative, that is much less costlier than private lessons.

Golf-Specific Fitness

I’m making this number 2 on the list, but easily could be a tie with number one, as many golfers, especially senior golfers have physical limitations that will not enable them to apply what they learn in their golf lessons, making improvement nearly impossible.

I am a firm believer that you are only capable of what your body can do in golf. In simpler terms, your body is keeping you from a better game. How many times have you told yourself you need a bigger backswing? Come on…be honest! What you are indirectly telling yourself, is your body can’t make a bigger backswing, and I’m telling you the ONLY way to improve it is with golf-specific stretching exercises specific to your backswing.

If you’re looking for longer drives, you need to improve your core strength and flexibility. This is the engine to your golf swing. When I talk about fitness, I’m not talking about going to a gym, and spending 2 grueling hours a day. I’m talking about doing, easy, fun and effective exercises right in your home with minimal equipment.

All you need is an exercise ball, exercise tubing (w/handles) and hand weights. That’s your entire golf fitness “in-home” gym. For under $50 you can have your own golf fitness gym, and start seeing results quickly.

If you need guidance on your golf fitness program, take a look at my Effortless Golf Swing Training System.

Golf Swing Training Aids

Another great option that can be very effective for specific swing faults is a golf swing training aid. There is a lot of garbage out there, and a few good pieces. The goal of any training aid is to ultimately make your swing better, but more specifically to help you correct YOUR personal swing fault.

This swing fault may be any number of them, such as a slice, top, thin, chunk, hook, pop up or any other ugly mishit that we all hate. There is only ONE training aid I think so highly of that I offer it on my site. The hinged golf club is an absolute gem of a training aid.

This club gives you INSTANT feedback as to the mistake you’re making in your golf swing. Whether it be a jerky takeaway, or an off plane swing, the hinge will break to show you it’s incorrect. Whether your tempo is off, or your swing plane, this training aid will get you corrected making a near perfect golf swing in no time!

I’ll be back later today, to finish this post, so stay tuned!

My personal golf instructor has agreed to provide some valuable golf swing tips right from his Golf Swing System that I’ve personally used to add 15 yards on my drives, and lower my score by 5 strokes, and I was a single digit already.

There are so many components to a good swing, that many golfers get overwhelmed and frustrated, never to improve. This golf swing system I’m talking about is simple, effective, easy-to-implement, and better yet…I’ve used it personally with awesome results.

I spent the past 10 years looking for a golf professional who could help me with my game. Thousands of dollars later, I finally found MY PRO! Not only has Bobby helped my golf swing immensely, he REALLY cares about me. I have NEVER met a golf instructor with SO much passion and care.

Creating a divot means you are hitting the ball first, then the ground. A divot before the ball is called a “fat shot”, which is something you want to try to avoid at all cost. A fat shot loses a tremendous amount of distance.

On the other hand, hitting the ball then taking a divot in your golf swing is something the professionals do on every golf swing they take. In order to do this, your hands have to be ahead of your clubhead at impact, which creates a descending blow on the ball. The most common problem is golfers try to lift the ball in the air and the clubhead gets ahead of your hands causing thin or bladed shots.

Your ball position can also play a role in where you contact it at the bottom of your golf swing. If it’s too far back, it’s hard to have room to rotate after impact. If it’s too far foward, you end up sliding laterally to get to the ball and hit it.

The ideal divot is about the size of a dollar bill and is only a half inch deep. Deeper divots mean you are coming down too steep onto the ball.